The Runner Up
by CharmedReality
Summary: Years have passed, bringing yet another death to Aya’s life. But every ending is also a beginning, and this time Yuuhi gets a second chance at love. Yuuhi x Aya. Oneshot.


The Runner Up - One-shot 

DISCLAIMER: These people belong to someone else. I've only manipulated them for my own ends.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just watched this series, and I fell so in love with Yuuhi that I felt the need to write a fanfic for him. So, obviously this is my first Ayashi no Ceres fic. Be gentle :) And please review!

Oh, and special thanks to Amyfushigiyugi, who encouraged to the point of threatening me to watch this particular anime. Check out her website Anime Defiance where you can get information on her fanfictions as well as GASP! her book!

Also thanks to BelleDayNight for a little pre-post reading and advice.

**-ooo-oooooo-ooo-**

'It should be raining,' the sandy haired man thought as he stood on a hilltop in the afternoon sun.

'But, no, there isn't even a cloud in the sky. Well, okay, there is one overly puffy white bit of fluff over there, but that is hardly the point. This isn't the time for sunshine. The grass shouldn't be this lush and green. The sky shouldn't be beaming with vibrancy and life when we are here to mourn death...not when _she_ is hurting.'

Yuuhi turned his head toward the white marble headstone, which touchingly read, "Touya, who was destined to love and be loved in return."

'I can't argue with that. Touya was quite literally born to be with Aya. I was born to...I don't know make pastries, salads, soups, entrees? As much as she loves my cooking, I can see why she chose him. Their relationship played out like a romance novel, and he was the hero. I guess that makes me a supporting character or maybe just the comic relief.

'Great. Touya dies, and I am pitying myself. Get it together, Yuuhi, she needs you more now than ever.'

His sad chestnut eyes flickered to where Aya stood. She was adorned in a long black kimono, accessorized with black lace gloves and a large hat that shaded her normally brilliant blue eyes from view.

'She is so beautiful. Even now, so full of pain and loss, she looks like an angel. Heh!' he mentally laughed at himself with just a hint of bitterness. 'No, I guess after seeing her as an angel I can hardly say that. Ceres is gone now. She looks like Aya, and she couldn't be more human or more perfect.'

There was a gentle tug at his dress slacks that pulled him out of his thoughts and down to a pair of wide, shimmering green eyes looking up at him in a silent request. It wasn't the first time he had been in this situation. She knew very well she could wrap him around her little finger, and often managed to worm her way into his arms whenever she was tired.

This time was no exception as he acquiesced to her unspoken signals. Bending over, he scooped the small, awaiting girl into his muscular arms. She snuggled herself into a familiar position and allowed her heavy lids to slide open and closed several times before finally remaining shut. The rhythmic breathing that fanned warmly against his neck told him she had fallen asleep.

'Has it really been five years since the day you were born? I remember pacing outside the delivery room, jumping at every sound I heard inside. Even Touya was more relaxed than I was, and his calm demeanor was severely shaken that day. When the nurse let us go in one by one, I was just after Touya. And as soon as I saw you I knew I could never let anything bad happen to you.

'I guess I'm not doing so well on that front right now.' Yuuhi looked up as Aya placed a single shell on top of Touya's headstone. He wasn't sure what significance the action held, but the importance was clear as salty splashes fell from her eyes to wet the cold stone.

Unable to comfort Aya, he hugged her daughter's sleeping form closer. 'Except for the hue of your eyes, you look exactly like your mother. You even have the same spirit, so full of love and strength, but still so sensitive.'

His eyes followed Aya as she then walked to her father's tomb to place a flower upon it. 'You share so much. I just wish you didn't have to share losing your fathers too.'

The freshly excavated earth at Touya's tombstone was adjacent to the longer resting plots for Aya's father and brother. 'Aki... How many tears did she shed for you that day? How many more will she shed in the coming weeks?' His grip on the sleeping girl remained gentle, but he wanted to squeeze his fists tight and scream at the heavens for taking away another piece of his Aya's heart.

The service was already over. Alec had come to pay his respects and left as had some of the other remaining Mikages. A look of guilt featured prominently in the blonde's tortured eyes, but those sins had long been forgiven, if not forgotten. Shouta, Suzumi, and Mrs. Q were escorting Aya's mother back to the car. Both she and Shouta had made full recoveries as far as their physical health was concerned. The rest of the Aogiri family was already on their way back to the main house where they were providing lunch to the grieving.

It would be one of the rare occasions where Yuuhi was not the one preparing the meal. Usually having someone else cook only irritated him or even made him jealous, but today he was glad for the break. He didn't feel much like cooking. He didn't feel much like doing anything.

"Ready?" asked the girl, no woman, standing beside him overlooking her dead husband's grave.

"Yes," Yuuhi said in a quiet voice as they turned to follow the other departing visitors.

'Yes? She loses the love of her life and your words of comfort to her are, "yes"? Baka!' he scolded himself as he opened the car door for her to enter before settling the strawberry blonde clinging to his shoulder into her seat in the back.

"Thank you, Yuuhi," Aya said while her gaze was fixed steadily upon the point they had just left even though it was not visible from the car.

"Of course, you shouldn't have to suffer Mrs. Q's driving today."

'BAKA!' he shouted at himself as soon as the jest left his lips, but to his surprise she laughed pleasantly. It wasn't the childish, innocent laugh he heard her emit in the early days of knowing her, nor was it a bitter, sorrowful laugh like those Ceres would sometimes release. It was clear and joyful and full of understanding.

"You always could make me laugh, Yuuhi. Thank you for that too." Before he could think of something to say that wouldn't have him immediately reprimanding himself, he was surprised by the feeling of her slipping her delicate hand into his larger one. He looked down at the sign of affection in surprise and squeezed his fingers tightly around hers.

"Aya, I..." he wasn't sure what to say. What could he say?

"We both knew it was coming," she spoke while staring absently ahead as if she hadn't heard him begin.

'Does she mean her and Touya, or her and me?' he wondered as he waited for her to continue.

"Once everything was over, and Ceres was finally at rest, it seemed like our lives were just beginning. Touya and I could finally be together. He had his memories restored, and a life was growing out of our love," she smiled with a fraction of the brilliance her smile usually carried before resuming her explanation.

"But the manna was gone. It was what created Touya and without it he wasn't just human; he was dying. We rarely spoke of it." She released a breath of air that fell somewhere between a laugh and a heavy sigh. "Probably because I cried every time he tried. Still, we both knew it was coming.

"Honestly, I thought he only had a year or two. It was a miracle that he lived as long as he did. Maybe Ceres is still watching over me somehow." Aya sniffled, and Yuuhi squeezed her hand supportively before handing her a tissue. "Thank you, again."

She smiled prettily at him, and it almost broke his heart as he saw all the emotions rolling through her large, sapphire eyes. "I know I shouldn't be crying. Touya would want me to be happy...he told me to be happy. But since when have I been able to do what I was told anyway?"

It was Yuuhi's turn to smile through his pain now. "Never," he responded as if on cue. He lifted his other hand to brush away some of the tears that were streaming down her rounded cheeks.

"Aya/Yuuhi," they said at the same time.

"Go ahead," he offered.

"No, you first," she insisted.

"I'm sorry about Touya. Even if you knew it was coming, you deserved better--you both did."

Fresh tears overflowed as she nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry too, Yuuhi."

Surprise flashed across his eyes, and he cupped a hand under her chin to lift her head back up to eye-level. "What reason could you possibly have for being sorry for me right now?"

"It has been six years since we met, Yuuhi. You haven't said so since the day Aki died and Ceres was freed, but you never stopped loving me."

Yuuhi drew a sharp breath and parted his lips to argue, but she placed a single finger against his mouth to stop him. "You also deserved better than watching the woman you loved with another man and his child while you watched over and protected us. You stayed in our lives even though it caused you pain.

"Over the years, you've become like a second father to my daughter. Little Chidori loves you as much as her namesake once did. I just wanted you to know how much that means to us...how much it means to me. And how sorry I am things couldn't have been different for you somehow. Maybe if the other Chidori had lived..."

A pair of lips silenced her before she could finish the thought. It wasn't the first time they kissed. There had been a time when it was the only way to transform her from Ceres back into Aya, but it had been a long time since that was the case. She didn't respond to the kiss, but she didn't push him away either. She simply allowed him to hold onto her.

Having his arms wrapped around her, even if it was slightly awkward in the close quarters of the car, felt extremely comforting. No matter how strong she tried to be for her daughter's sake, the loss of Touya was tearing her apart.

Finally, it was Yuuhi who released her and turned away. "God, Aya, I'm sorry. I just...I just didn't want you to finish that sentence, I guess." He stared out the window, so he wouldn't have to meet her eyes.

They sat in silence until Yuuhi couldn't stand it anymore. In a very low voice that he was keeping steady with great effort, he spoke. "I never loved Chidori--_that Chidori_--the way she loved me. I felt bad about it especially after I couldn't save her." He rose his hand up to quiet her when Aya began to protest. "But you just can't make yourself love someone...or stop loving someone. I understand that."

"Yuuhi..." Aya bit her bottom lip lightly. It wasn't that she didn't love Yuuhi, in fact, she very much did. But what she felt for him and what she felt for Touya had always been very different. But she saw the parallel he was drawing, and a weight sat heavily in her stomach at the thought. But no words of comfort or wisdom seemed adequate for the man who had given her so much and received so little in return.

"We should go to the main house. Everyone will be wondering where we are soon," he said as he put the car into drive and a few raindrops splashed on the windshield. 'You're late,' he thought ruefully.

**-ooo-oooooo-ooo-**

"Happy birthday, Chidori!" Yuuhi called out to the exuberant young girl as he entered the small house she and Aya lived in after they had moved following Touya's death the previous year. Aya had claimed there were too many sad memories clinging to the happy ones in that place. She needed a fresh slate and so did her daughter, and it didn't hurt that they were now much closer to Suzami's home.

"Uncle Yuuhi, what did you bring me!" Chidori called out as she clenched and unclenched her fists in anticipation of grabbing the gift he was carrying. It had taken months before she was smiling again after Touya's death, but there was something indomitable about her spirit, and she was once again the ray of light Yuuhi remembered.

He handed the small girl a small box with brightly decorated wrappings and over-the-top metallic ribbons and bows that he knew she would adore as much, if not more, than the gift itself.

"It is a pony, so you better unwrap it quickly before it suffocates," he quipped with a wink, the way he always did for her.

"Uncle Yuuhi, you're silly!" she shouted before laying siege upon the defenseless gift. Moments later, she was sitting in the tattered remains of colorful ribbons and bows and paper, staring at pair of very familiar crimson earrings.

"Ooooh!" she squealed in delight, before running to hug his legs as she always did.

Aya had walked in from the kitchen in time to see the present. A poignant look passed between her and Yuuhi as Chidori obliviously danced around the room holding up her new jewelry to her ears. "Mommy, Mommy! Look, they are just like yours! We are twins now!"

Aya's heart pounded wildly in her chest over the display, but she calmly knelt before the hyper girl, and dutifully adorned her with Yuuhi's gift. Chidori's effervescent emerald eyes shone with concern. "Mommy, are you sad because you didn't get a gift?"

"Why would you say that, sweetheart?" Aya asked while brushing a hand through the young girl's long hair.

"Because you are crying," she said as her normally bright expression had changed to a more sullen one.

Aya's fingertips unconsciously fell upon her face, feeling the moisture there. "I'm crying because I'm happy," Aya explained simply.

Chidori considered her words momentarily before her smile lit back upon her cheerful countenance. "You are silly just like Uncle Yuuhi!" Then she ran out of the room to find a mirror.

"Aya, I am sorry if I shouldn't have..." Yuuhi began, but this time it was his words that were cut off by an unexpected kiss. It was the first time their lips had met since the day of Touya's funeral. As his initial shock wore off, he fell deeper into the kiss which had started with a needful urgency and was now soft and loving.

'How long have I dreamed of being with Aya like this? How many times have I served her and Chidori lunch at my restaurant and wanted them to be there as my family and not as acquaintances? How many nights did she cry on my shoulder after Touya was gone, and it took every fiber of my being to resist slipping my arms around her and shutting out all her pain? But I couldn't.

'It was too much like the time Touya was given false memories and it seemed over for them. She asked me to make her forget. Then it was my pride that stopped me. This time I simply loved her too much to let her forget Touya. She shouldn't forget him. He was her first love and a good man.'

"It was the perfect gift, Yuuhi," she said when they parted for breath.

"Well, I do have one thing that I was hoping would top it, but I guess I'll let you be the judge." Dropping down until he was on one knee, he removed another small box from his pocket. This one was simple and black, and when he opened it there was a sparkling diamond ring inside.

"Aya, I love you more than I can even say, and even if you can't return those feelings I would be the happiest man in the world if you married me."

"Baka!" she screamed as she fell to her knees and threw her arms around the surprised man's broad shoulders.

"Yuuhi, I do love you. I do." Tears streamed from her eyes as she buried her face against his neck.

His fingers removed the salty wetness, but continued to rest upon her face. "You are crying again. I guess you must be pretty happy too," he joked lightly before she brought their lips crashing back together.

"Mommy? Uncle Yuuhi?" Chidori asked in surprise when she pranced back into the room and found them huddled together on the floor.

"Chidori, Yuuhi just asked me to marry him," Aya said with a maternal smile and braced for whatever response would come from the young girl.

"It's about time!" she said as she stomped her foot to show that her declaration was final.

Her bold statement left the three of them laughing together on the living room floor. Yuuhi's own eyes were glistening from unshed tears. 'So this is how it feels to be the happiest man in the world after all.'

**-ooo-oooooo-ooo-**

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Review please!


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